Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail

[Azza]

Well forgot this was on as well!

 

[BigAndy87]

Was a good show tonight atleast there wasnt any 'gunning' this week lol

 

[Merlin5]

Louis has balls of steel going inside those cells, especially when it was ill advised by the prison officer. I watched both parts back to back tonight. Louis has a great approach. He says just enough to get them talking and opening up without him really debating his opinions, but rather just throws out some opinions to get a response.

And, politically incorrect as this may sound, why is there such an obviously overwhelming number, like 99.9%, of black people shown in that jail and the boot camp throughout the documentary? It's truly unbelievable. Why don't any of these parents who have decided to have kids take enough responsibility to bring them up and teach them right from wrong and show them some love. And those guys at the end who had their trial and got 90 years and 40 years. They couldn't care less, just laughing it off and loud mouthing. A life behind bars sadly appears to be their interpretation of freedom, a better life to them than on the streets. And if that guy who supposedly pulled the trigger on a triple murder is facing the death penalty, then how come the other guy who got 90 years also for a triple murder isn't facing death row. What a waste of taxpayers money keeping these illiterate, subhuman scum alive.

 

[semi-pro waster]

And, politically incorrect as this may sound, why is there such an obviously overwhelming number, like 99.9%, of black people shown in that jail and the boot camp throughout the documentary? It's truly unbelievable. Why don't any of these parents who have decided to have kids take enough responsibility to bring them up and teach them right from wrong and show them some love. And those guys at the end who had their trial and got 90 years and 40 years. They couldn't care less, just laughing it off and loud mouthing. A life behind bars sadly appears to be their interpretation of freedom, a better life to them than on the streets. And if that guy who supposedly pulled the trigger on a triple murder is facing the death penalty, then how come the other guy who got 90 years also for a triple murder isn't facing death row. What a waste of taxpayers money keeping these illiterate, subhuman scum alive.

You're asking a pretty huge social question there but there's various theories about it, criminology (despite being pretty useless in a practical sense) offers some fascinating possibilities as to why that should be.

One plausible argument is that it comes down to the the crimes that are committed e.g. middle-class and upper-class are much more likely to commit the so called white collar crimes such as fraud and these tend to attract sentences at the lower category jails if at all, lower-class crime is more likely to involve violence against the person such as muggings, assaults or the others such as burglary - the theme tying this together is that the people setting the tariffs are usually in the middle/upper-class bracket and whether consciously or not they look after their own.

Another argument is that there's a lack of education and opportunities available to the lower classes, it's not really an argument about colour though, it's an argument that (relative) poverty and low social mobility contribute to making crime more likely. In America the lower-class and poor is predominantly where black people will be - not always of course but it is one factor.

It may be a vicious circle with the lack of a good positive role model meaning that the children will expect that the norm is to go to jail and actions that would make this likely are part of an acceptable risk. It may be partly cultural in that there is a certain prohibition against losing face in the eyes of your peers, if you were to take a look at the Mafia a number of pretty horrendous actions have been committed as a result of being seen to lose face.

America has a much larger percentage of it's population incarcerated in general than most other countries, that wouldn't necessarily affect the proportions but it could still be weighted against certain types of crimes as I mentioned in the first theory.

For my money it's likely to be a combination of factors, including some of most of those but equally read a different bunch of criminology books and you'll probably find the polar opposite as the causes.

As for why they didn't get the death penalty - are they in a state that pursues the death penalty?

I haven't seen this Louis Theroux episode yet so I'll have to see if I can find it on iPlayer or catch a repeat some time.

 

[physichull]

Louis has balls of steel going inside those cells, especially when it was ill advised by the prison officer. I watched both parts back to back tonight. Louis has a great approach. He says just enough to get them talking and opening up without him really debating his opinions, but rather just throws out some opinions to get a response.

And, politically incorrect as this may sound, why is there such an obviously overwhelming number, like 99.9%, of black people shown in that jail and the boot camp throughout the documentary? It's truly unbelievable. Why don't any of these parents who have decided to have kids take enough responsibility to bring them up and teach them right from wrong and show them some love. And those guys at the end who had their trial and got 90 years and 40 years. They couldn't care less, just laughing it off and loud mouthing. A life behind bars sadly appears to be their interpretation of freedom, a better life to them than on the streets. And if that guy who supposedly pulled the trigger on a triple murder is facing the death penalty, then how come the other guy who got 90 years also for a triple murder isn't facing death row. What a waste of taxpayers money keeping these illiterate, subhuman scum alive.

I know murder is murder, but i think the guy killed 3 kids or younger people in retaliation for somebody in a rival gang killing one of his children, or something like that. So that was why he faced the death penalty?

 

[arknor]

That guy with the triple murder charge is sick. Absolutely disgusting. Killed 3 young kids in retaliation for another young murder.

didnt he say they executed a 15month old kid ? people like that deserve what they get.

let those types of people kill each other as far as i care just keep them away from the normal people

 

[Wyrdo]

No, they executed a gang member that had a 15 month old child.

 

[DiCe!]

You're asking a pretty huge social question there but there's various theories about it, criminology (despite being pretty useless in a practical sense) offers some fascinating possibilities as to why that should be.

One plausible argument is that it comes down to the the crimes that are committed e.g. middle-class and upper-class are much more likely to commit the so called white collar crimes such as fraud and these tend to attract sentences at the lower category jails if at all, lower-class crime is more likely to involve violence against the person such as muggings, assaults or the others such as burglary - the theme tying this together is that the people setting the tariffs are usually in the middle/upper-class bracket and whether consciously or not they look after their own.

Another argument is that there's a lack of education and opportunities available to the lower classes, it's not really an argument about colour though, it's an argument that (relative) poverty and low social mobility contribute to making crime more likely. In America the lower-class and poor is predominantly where black people will be - not always of course but it is one factor.

It may be a vicious circle with the lack of a good positive role model meaning that the children will expect that the norm is to go to jail and actions that would make this likely are part of an acceptable risk. It may be partly cultural in that there is a certain prohibition against losing face in the eyes of your peers, if you were to take a look at the Mafia a number of pretty horrendous actions have been committed as a result of being seen to lose face.

America has a much larger percentage of it's population incarcerated in general than most other countries, that wouldn't necessarily affect the proportions but it could still be weighted against certain types of crimes as I mentioned in the first theory.

For my money it's likely to be a combination of factors, including some of most of those but equally read a different bunch of criminology books and you'll probably find the polar opposite as the causes.

As for why they didn't get the death penalty - are they in a state that pursues the death penalty?

I haven't seen this Louis Theroux episode yet so I'll have to see if I can find it on iPlayer or catch a repeat some time.

Didnt one guy near the end say

"Mother is a drunk
Sister is a whore
Brother is a no body
I feel relief for being in here"

If there are familys like that....no wonder. that goes for any race.

 

[Wyrdo]

Yeah he did, kinda felt sorry for the guy. Also for that 14 year old kid who dropped out of the boot camp, wtf?

Seriously, deal with that for four months or spend the next 10 years in jail and he chose jail?!

 

[TheBrooder]

I saw the first episode last night, and while intriguing I found it really disturbing the way people can treat others like dogs. The one guy calling the fact he had a weak cellmate to exploit a "gift from god".

I read a bit about the young psycho. He and his accomplice apparently met while playing WoW

Neither man had a criminal record. They met through the fictional, fantasy online universe called World of Warcraft, Steckel said.

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2008/05/two-accused-in.html#ixzz1Nw1ghJAT

I kept imagining how you would feel being locked up in a cell with 13 animals after you killed someone whilst driving or something, and they said to you "is tiime ta boot da **** up white boy..." *shudder*

 

[avec]

Louis has balls of steel going inside those cells, especially when it was ill advised by the prison officer. I watched both parts back to back tonight. Louis has a great approach. He says just enough to get them talking and opening up without him really debating his opinions, but rather just throws out some opinions to get a response.

And, politically incorrect as this may sound, why is there such an obviously overwhelming number, like 99.9%, of black people shown in that jail and the boot camp throughout the documentary? It's truly unbelievable. Why don't any of these parents who have decided to have kids take enough responsibility to bring them up and teach them right from wrong and show them some love. And those guys at the end who had their trial and got 90 years and 40 years. They couldn't care less, just laughing it off and loud mouthing. A life behind bars sadly appears to be their interpretation of freedom, a better life to them than on the streets. And if that guy who supposedly pulled the trigger on a triple murder is facing the death penalty, then how come the other guy who got 90 years also for a triple murder isn't facing death row. What a waste of taxpayers money keeping these illiterate, subhuman scum alive.

Watch The Wire, carefully.

There's so much in it that will educate you what it's like for them in their world, why things work the way they do, why they are so trapped and why their views and outlook on life are incredibly different to people like us.

It's a different world when you've been brought up on the streets, hard lessons are learned very quickly. Life is cheap and the penalties for breaching the codes of the game are severe. You either embrace it and adapt to it or it breaks you, there aren't many other options.

I am fascinated by American ghetto culture and all the things that have happened in order for that world to end up flourishing.

 

[Jamie23]

Another big fan of Louis here, don't think either were the best documentary's he's released but I still found them very enjoyable. Got the wire lined up now to watch avec , do you think it's close to the truth or vastly exaggerated for entertainment?

 

[arknor]

I saw the first episode last night, and while intriguing I found it really disturbing the way people can treat others like dogs.

it cant be that different in our country, i had a friend who got sent to prison for a few years for robbing people and he was a proper bumhole when he got released.

treated everyone like crap , didnt trust anyone etc its no suprise most people end up back in prison with the behaviour changes they need to survive on the inside.

 

[nas]

snip

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18281007

have a look